Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl.

I began reading this on the plane on the way to Phoenix on Christmas day and hardly noticed the time. I read few restaurant reviews and probably never read one from the New York Times where she was the critic for some years. I certainly did not expect a laugh-out-loud book. Because she was well-known and restaurants are keen to treat the Times critic to a great meal, she adopted disguises so she would be treated as an ordinary diner -- she wrote reviews to sell newspapers, not restaurants. She found that the personas that she adopted give her insights into herself that were not always welcome. The recipes scattered throughout the book are do-able and look delicious. The food descriptions were lovely, fun, and only occasionally over the top (fish poached in goose fat created a sensation that was "dizzying and exciting, as if you were flying and swimming at the same time."